1. Description of Machine Type Communications
The field of communications has generally focused on the development of technologies that facilitate communication between human beings, or between devices that are operated or controlled by human beings. For example, the field of telephony, both wired and wireless, was developed to facilitate voice communication between human beings. As such, these communication technologies employ transmission media, transmission equipment, transmission protocols, and even billing and management structures that are designed to efficiently and profitably carry human-centric communication traffic.
Machine Type Communications (MTC), or Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, refers to communication between machines with no, or only limited, human involvement. Typically, MTC is used to collect data from remotely deployed “smart” devices. The collected data can be processed at a centralized location that may be far away from the devices that collected the data. MTC thus has a number of important applications, such as remote monitoring, remote metering, asset tracking, automation, toll collection, emission management, and many others.
Many MTC applications may also benefit from the use of wireless communication networks as the communication medium, as it may be cost-prohibitive, and in some cases impossible, to run physical wires to MTC devices. Thus, in recent years, wireless communication networks that were designed, developed and managed to carry primarily human-centric traffic, such as voice traffic, have been utilized to carry MTC traffic. Integrating MTC traffic into conventional wireless telephony networks has proven to be a challenge for a number of reasons, including the differences in the type, frequency and amount of data typically transmitted by MTC devices and in the sheer number of MTC devices expected to be deployed.
2. Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile communication system, which evolved from the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and is intended to provide improved mobile communication services based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) technology. UTRAN, short for UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, is a collective term for the Node B's and Radio Network Controllers which make up the UMTS radio access network. Thus, UTRAN is essentially a radio access network using wideband code division multiple access for user equipment nodes (UEs).
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has undertaken to further evolve the UTRAN and GSM based radio access network technologies. In this regard, specifications for the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) are ongoing within 3GPP. The Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) comprises the Long Term Evolution (LTE) and System Architecture Evolution (SAE).
3. Definition of Service Capability Server
A typical layout of an MTC system 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown therein, an MTC system can be logically divided into a Device Domain, a Network Domain, and an Application Domain. One or more MTC devices 22A-22C are deployed in the Device Domain. The MTC devices 22A-22C may collect data and/or perform other operations at various remote locations. The MTC devices 22A-22C may be connected together in an MTC area network 24, for example, through an MTC gateway 20. In some cases, the MTC devices 22A-22C may be connected together in a peer-to-peer network that does not include a gateway. In other cases, the MTC devices 22A-22C may not be connected or communicate with each other at all.
An MTC application 30 resides in the Application Domain. The MTC application 30 communicates with the MTC devices 22A-22C through a network 10 in the Network Domain. The network 10 may include any type of communication network, including wired and/or wireless data communication networks, packet switched communication networks, circuit switched communication networks, etc. However, as noted above, wireless communication networks may be particularly suitable for MTC applications.
The MTC application 30 may collect data from or transmit data or instructions to the MTC devices 22A-22C. A user may access the collected data using a client application 32 that interfaces with the MTC application 30.
Recently, the 3GPP has defined a new node, the Service Capability Server 12, that assists in communicating with the MTC devices. Currently, there is no exact definition on what kinds of functions the Service Capability Server may perform, and no interface specifications. Note that the Service Capability Server is also sometimes referred to as an “MTC Server” in ETSI terminology, and may also be referred to by that name in the E-UTRAN context.